The brilliant Mateus Asato recently announced that he took a break from his career and disabled his social networks. Being extremely respectful of one of the greatest guitarists today, the only difference between him and any of us is the gigantic exposure he has raised with his art and hard work. I say that, because the feeling he had is known, common and, I venture to say, innate to every artist.
Thank God, I never stopped to count how many times I lost my inspiration. I'm sure that if I counted in a notebook the time I was away from my guitar because I didn't feel motivated, or because of stress, or simply because I needed to think more about how to pay a late bill, I would certainly be very amazed. Good thing love always comes back. Keep it well, ALWAYS come back.
Mateus was fed up. Despite having built an exemplary career based on the modern format of social networks, he felt that those few seconds of Instagram, the routine of being forced to feed the machine with the musical fast food it requires, no longer felt like it. Mateus, through his own experience, only opened the heart of the artist: the impossibility of industrializing his art.
It is so sad to know that the fact that an artist is not on social media means his complete absence from the public. Its art is not relevant. There is no other way to reach the listener. That's because we live more and more time wallowing on the smartphone screen, fitting the meaning of reality to the new virtual world. Look that! And it is through that same Xiaomi that you are reading me, haha. But it is this same tool that throws the musician away from his soul. Create takes a long time. Composing requires too much. Reaching the point of greatest expression of your soul is a long and tiring journey. It takes hours, months, years, lives! All of this seems to me to be antagonistic to the ephemerality of social media, the place where you work for hours to achieve the best audiovisual quality, and in a flash you were gone.
The breaking point comes and goes for all of us! The moment when we just can't stand to contradict the maturation time of art arrives, and it comes with both feet on the chest. Often, accompanied by a deep sadness, but always permeated with reflection. The person who survives is the one who respects its own artistic impetus and gives time to its own tempo, to its beat, to its metronome, to its melody, to his harmony, composing its own song in its own way.
As I write these words, I hold on to my crazy desire to record a video and get a lot of likes. But at the end of the day, I really want to spend as much time as possible to compose what is true to my soul. I am gradually breaking the social media bubble and returning to the meaning of being an artist. Cheer for me! It is an extremely difficult process.
One day (I hope), Mateus Asato will look at his guitar again and will make a sound that satisfies his soul. Maybe, it will not fit in Stories, nor in Feed, nor in IGTV, maybe even on YouTube. It will certainly fit in his heart and will be memorable.
In closing, a snippet of a Steven Wilson song that comes in handy.
"I'm tired of Facebook
Tired of my failing health
I'm tired of everyone
And that includes myself "
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